WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J.- Three Monmouth University football players
were named Preseason All-Northeast Conference while the Hawks were chosen to
finish fifth as a team on the 2012 NEC Coaches Poll, released Thursday morning.
Defending Co-Champion University at Albany was picked first, earning six of
eight possible first place votes. Duquesne, which tied for the league
title a season ago, was second overall with a single first place vote while
Bryant was third, earning a pair of first place votes. Central
Connecticut State was fourth, Monmouth fifth, Robert Morris sixth, Wagner
picked seventh followed by Sacred Heart and Saint Francis University.
"We are very excited for the start of the
2012 season," said Monmouth Head Coach Kevin Callahan. "I am happy with the way
our team worked during the winter and spring and I am really looking forward to
getting back to work on Monday."
Fifth-year senior offensive tackle Mike Murphy (Toms River, N.J./Toms River
East), fifth year senior tight end Tyler George (Berkeley Heights, N.J./Gov.
Livingston) and sophomore defensive lineman Eric Macik (Landisville,
Pa./Hempfield/Navy Prep) were named to the 25-man preseason All-NEC poll.
Murphy has been the Hawks' starter at left tackle for the last three seasons,
earning Second Team All-NEC recognition as a redshirt junior in 2011.
George has been a top tight end in the league over the last few seasons,
starting 33 consecutive games. He has recorded 36 receptions each of the
last two seasons and ranks sixth all-time in receptions at MU with 93 catches.
Macik appeared in all 11 games as a true freshman, collecting 17 tackles,
including 14 solo stops. He also finished third on the team in tackles
for a loss with 7.5, with a pair of sacks.
"Our guys are very deserving of the honors
that they have received. I look forward to seeing them live up to these
expectations," said Callahan.
Monmouth, which is celebrating its' 20th season sponsoring football,
finished last season tied for fourth in the league with a 4-4 conference
record. The Hawks return nine starters on defense and 10 starters on offense,
including returning all-conference performers offensive lineman Dino Molina and
wide receiver Neal Sterling.
2012 NEC Football Coaches Poll
1. Albany (6 first place votes)
2. Duquesne (1)
3. Bryant (2)
4. Central Connecticut State
5. Monmouth
6. Robert Morris
7. Wagner
8. Sacred Heart
9. Saint Francis
Monmouth Quotes from the NEC
Conference Call:
Ralph Ventre-Coach Callahan, what are you expecting from your club
this season?
Coach Callahan-Well, we're expecting a great deal of
improvement, I really like the leadership that we have in our locker room, our
older players have done a phenomenal job throughout the winter and spring of
raising the level of commitment and the level of expectation of every member of
our team and the result was that we had a great winter and a great spring, and
we're very excited moving forward. As you mentioned, last year we started the
season with a couple of good wins but we really didn't finish the year the way
that we expect ourselves to do that and part of that had to do with not winning
some games against some very good teams, some well coached teams, here at home
and that's something that we, needless to say, have to do a much better job on.
Jim Waggoner (Staten Island Advance)-This is a general
question, you've been at this a long time, the value of preseason polls other
than giving us guys something to talk about and fans to talk about, do you put
much stock in it and can you give me a comment about Wagner College and what you
see their prospects are this year, particularly, they seem to be under the
radar screen here according to this data that was released today, this is Nick
Doscher's final season and their skill players, running back, receiver?
Coach-In regard to your first question, the preseason polls
and the stock you put in them, I think every coach on the call will feel this
way, it's a reflection of how other people see you, it's a reflection of what
you did a year ago and what people might be expecting for you to do this year,
and I think you need to take it as that. If you're the #1 team in the poll you
gotta feel pretty good about it, that others have such a high opinion of you.
If you're not where you think you should be in the poll, then you might be
motivated a little bit more to prove others or others opinions wrong. I don't
think there's a beginning and an end to it, of the teams in the league
somebody's gotta be number one and somebody's gotta fill every slot on the
order there so you just take it for what it is, its an opinion poll, of what
other people are basing your prospects on, really based on a year ago so we'll
take it at that. As far as your question, I guess regarding Wagner's #7
ranking, I certainly think that's a little bit low quite honestly, that did
surprise me, Wagner's a team that's really had our number in recent years here
and we've got a lot of respect for them. I know Coach Hameline and most of the
staff there very well, I started coaching up at Wagner College many years ago,
I know the hard work that they put in, I know how well coached that team is,
how extremely talented the Wagner team is.
Jeremy Schilling (New Jersey Newsroom)-There's a bunch of
different ways to ask basically the same question, so here's my attempt at
taking a different kind of angle on it. As we sit here, right now on August 2nd,
what is the one thing or the one player which has you most excited about this
season?
Coach-I'm excited about our offense Jeremy, really excited
about it, we return all but one player from a year ago, our quarterback is
healthy, our offensive line if the best group that I can remember us ever
having, and we've got a lot of depth at the skill positions. I like the
improvement that we've made throughout the course of spring practice, so that
unit really excites me and I can't wait to see what we can do some the season.
Schilling-Secondly, just a comment about the 3 guys who
made All-NEC this season?
Coach-Well, I think it's a very flattering honor for all 3
of them, it shows that their efforts and their performances on the field from a
year ago are respected by the coaches in this league. I think the players
deserve a lot of credit for performing a way that would get peoples attention.
Matt Harmon (Shore Sports Network)-What's it mean,
obviously every year is special but this year a little bit more so for
Monmouth, it marks the 20th year of football at Monmouth, does that
have any special significance to you and/or the players going into the season?
Coach-Well I think it does in that it's a milestone, 20
years ago when we started out and created football here at Monmouth University,
a team that you were a member of, I think to look back at it now you can see
what the journey has been and the progress that we've made since we took the
field back in September of 1993. The league was developed and came into
fruition in 1996, It's grown tremendously since that time and its become a very
competitive league, but again looking back on it, all the players who have
contributed to building the football program here at Monmouth University, that
this year will mark a very proud moment for them.
Harmon-Coach, just a follow up before I let the others in
there too, obviously the roster makeup this year has a ton of experience back,
I know you mentioned everybody back offensively just about but one, lot of guys
back and some 5th year seniors, how important is that overall, just
the experience of knowing hopefully what it will take to bring a championship
back?
Coach-I think that's tremendously important, as I said
earlier its those older guys who bring that leadership to the locker room and
out onto the field, that's something that we're going to be counting on they're
also the guys that develop that unity and that bond that the team has, I'm very
pleased where we're at in that regard. These guys have experience some very,
very good wins in their earlier years, they've also experienced some
disappointment, some losses that they're not happy about, and I think they
learn from both the wins and the losses hopefully that experience of learning
from both the good and the bad games is going to help us tremendously this
year.
Scott (Las Vegas)- Looking at the schedule here, you have
Lehigh in the opener which is a repeat of last seasons opener, you guys had a
real rough time with that game, how do you feel coming into that game this
season?
Coach-They're just as talented a team this year as they were
a year ago, they're ranked top 12 nationally, 13 in some polls, they've got a
lot of their players coming back off that playoff team of a year ago
which they went beyond the first round in, it's going to be a challenge for us,
there's no doubt about that, but having said that, I also think that we're a
much improved team over where we were in that opening game a year ago as well,
we've got a great deal more experience, the younger players that we played a
season ago, especially on the defensive side have got a year of experience
under their belt, they've got a winter and a spring behind them, so I think
that we're going to be a much better team and we'll be much more representative
heading into that game than we may have been last year.
Tony Graham (Asbury Park Press)-Certainly you had a lot
of offensive firepower returning, defensively you guys struggled quite a bit,
how do you hope to turn that around a bit this year?
Coach-Well once we got 3, maybe 4 games deep into the
season, we really began to struggle on the defensive side. I think part of the
fact is that we were extremely young, we had a number of first year players, we
had 2 to 3 true freshman who were playing, and playing a significant number of
plays. I think we wore down a little bit in those positions where we were young
as the season went on, we lost a couple of key guys due to injury, but I think
right now, we've got nine guys coming back who had significant, if not starting
experiences last year, I think we're going to be much deeper, I know we're
going to be much deeper than we were a year ago, and I think that on the field
experience from last season is going to help us tremendously, I think we're
going to be a much, much different defensive unit this year than the one we
ended the season with in 2011.
Tony-That home and road record was certainly unusual,
have you ever seen anything like that before and how do you go about winning
some home games?
Coach-Well, I don't know if I've ever seen it before nor do
I want to see it again, I can tell you that, especially in our case but I
think, and this is going to sound like a cliché, you've got to make sure that
you're creating a true home field advantage, we've taken some steps within the
program to address that. I think, as many of the other coaches have said, every
week, every single week is an important game, and you've got to make sure you
are approaching it that way because in this league if you don't, you're not
going to be successful.
Tony-Kevin, (don't know what he says )a bunch of
players back now on offense and defense, do you think that you guys are being,
I know you addressed the poll situation before, do you think you guys are being
overlooked a little bit?
Coach-Well, its hard to say Tony, I don't know how the
voting went or how it was done, it might have been one vote that separated
three different spots in the poll, you can never really accurately assess that.
I think people honestly picked us about where we finished last year.
Tony-And Kyle Frazier, what is his status for the
upcoming year, obviously very important?
Coach-Healthy, excited, ready to go.
Tony-This year, in the preseason, are you going to hold
him back a little? There won't be any contact, but do you turn him loose pretty
much now in the preseason camp?
Coach-Absolutely. He's 100% ready to go. We actually were
able to cut him loose quite a bit in the spring, we did take some precautions,
as we do with all of our guys coming off surgeries in spring practice, but we
have no worries there.
